Light Rail on display downtown

[Rardy]

i wasnt following the roads, but even on the qaud map which is an official map(qaud map) done by the United states geological survey (USGS). shows my figures to be correct. I even calculated the error.

these qaud maps are accurate to abotu 10 metres... soooo i'll take the qaud map over googleearth anyday(especially if its the free google earth version.

Lemme get this straight -- you're honestly claiming it's 26 miles from the Mississippi River to Macon, TN??? I looked at MapQuest and it doesn't even show Collierville. Maybe we just need to agree to disagree over this one.

[ricky_the_great]

Lemme get this straight -- you're honestly claiming it's 26 miles from the Mississippi River to Macon, TN??? And please pick what you're using, USGS or MapQuest. You've said both. I looked at MapQuest and it doesn't even show Collierville. Reliable.

i used USGS to make the actual calculations, then checked out mapquest to see if its map was similer to that of USGS

[ricky_the_great]

i used USGS to make the actual calculations, then checked out mapquest to see if its map was similer to that of USGS

i'll recheck my calculations when i get back from the lab in a few hours.. but I'm pretty confident that downtown Memphis is not 25 miles from cordova.

Google Earth(especially the free version) is really cool for its imaging software, but realize that 1 most of those images are super imposed/stretched and fitted to the 3-d globe. not to mention hundreds of images are meshed together to form one composite image.. take a look at NYC or Chicago.. both have skycrapers seemingly leaning towards eachother. the satellite images are not perfectly over and perpandicular, neither are the air photes.

I myself have see plenty of mistakes on google earth before, including the complete mis-alighnment of all memphis roads from the images.. that took abotu 4 months for them to fix.

and im not too sure about this, but are exit markers on interstates based off of mile markers. of interstate distance.. which appling road where many peopel consider cordova to start is i believe exit 14... and germantown parkway is exit 15... not too sure about that though.

[Rardy]

i'll recheck my calculations when i get back from the lab in a few hours.. but I'm pretty confident that downtown Memphis is not 25 miles from cordova.

Google Earth(especially the free version) is really cool for its imaging software, but realize that 1 most of those images are super imposed/stretched and fitted to the 3-d globe. not to mention hundreds of images are meshed together to form one composite image.. take a look at NYC or Chicago.. both have skycrapers seemingly leaning towards eachother. the satellite images are not perfectly over and perpandicular, neither are the air photes.

I myself have see plenty of mistakes on google earth before, including the complete mis-alighnment of all memphis roads from the images.. that took abotu 4 months for them to fix.

and im not too sure about this, but are exit markers on interstates based off of mile markers. of interstate distance.. which appling road where many peopel consider cordova to start is i believe exit 14... and germantown parkway is exit 15... not too sure about that though.

Noooo...I'm not saying downtown is 25 miles from Cordova... Not at all. Yes, Tennessee does base exit numbers off mileage. But Memphis isn't quite true to that because Exit 1 lasts for over 2 1/2 miles as it climbs the alphabet from 1a to something like 1j or so. I think that was a result of I-40 originally being planned/numbered to cut straight through Overton Park area. When they re-routed it over the north loop, they didn't change the exit numbers, I don't think.

By my (probably flawed) calculations, it's 15.19 miles from downtown to Germantown Pkwy @ I-40 as the crow flies. I've got driving distance at 17.43 miles.

I show another 17.17 miles from G'town Pkwy to Macon, TN (in a straight horizontal line), though.

Yes! The building shadows are ridiculous in GoogleEarth. Drives me crazy!

[jrox]

Noooo...I'm not saying downtown is 25 miles from Cordova... Not at all. Yes, Tennessee does base exit numbers off mileage. But Memphis isn't quite true to that because Exit 1 lasts for over 2 1/2 miles as it climbs the alphabet from 1a to something like 1j or so. I think that was a result of I-40 originally being planned/numbered to cut straight through Overton Park area. When they re-routed it over the north loop, they didn't change the exit numbers, I don't think.

By my (probably flawed) calculations, it's 15.19 miles from downtown to Germantown Pkwy @ I-40 as the crow flies. I've got driving distance at 17.43 miles.

I show another 17.17 miles from G'town Pkwy to Macon, TN (in a straight horizontal line), though.

Yes! The building shadows are ridiculous in GoogleEarth. Drives me crazy!

It is 25 when I take the northern loop downtown. I know because I got paid for it quite a few times. The rail line running through Cordova will cut that in half. I tell you this, I work in the medical district and no one drives there car after it is parked because you lose your parkings space. Space you have probably paid for with a monthly parking pass. That includes downtown. A lot of people would park at a point and take it.

[ricky_the_great]

It is 25 when I take the northern loop downtown. I know because I got paid for it quite a few times. The rail line running through Cordova will cut that in half. I tell you this, I work in the medical district and no one drives there car after it is parked because you lose your parkings space. Space you have probably paid for with a monthly parking pass. That includes downtown. A lot of people would park at a point and take it.

i measured a linear distance from downtown to Cordova, i didnt follow the streets or interstate.

I calculated the latitude radius of earth at that the latitude that cordova and downtown share. i assumed earth to be spherical in this instance because of the small curvature being covered. therefore knowing the two degrees of longitute between downtown and cordova. i converted the angle difference to radians, and calculated the arc length. then i set up my ratio for altitude, to the geosphere. then from there i got the new arc length which is the distance from cordova to downtown. there should not be too much of an error, because of the ellipitcal shape of the earth, mainly due to the small arc length.

[Rardy]

i measured a linear distance from downtown to Cordova, i didnt follow the streets or interstate.

I calculated the latitude radius of earth at that the latitude that cordova and downtown share. i assumed earth to be spherical in this instance because of the small curvature being covered. therefore knowing the two degrees of longitute between downtown and cordova. i converted the angle difference to radians, and calculated the arc length. then i set up my ratio for altitude, to the geosphere. then from there i got the new arc length which is the distance from cordova to downtown. there should not be too much of an error, because of the ellipitcal shape of the earth, mainly due to the small arc length.

I think it's safe to say we just killed this thread...

[ricky_the_great]

I think it's safe to say we just killed this thread...

lol whoops

[northernbizzkit1]

I think it's safe to say we just killed this thread...

hey, I'm all for it if we use this thread for calculus/geometry/trig problems with a Memphis spin!

[memphis born]

hey, I'm all for it if we use this thread for calculus/geometry/trig problems with a Memphis spin!

What is all this latitude, calculus, 25 mile stuff? The plain truth is Light rail is going to happen first Airport to Downtown and then beyond. Second if the city continues to negotiate with CSX(and they will) some form of commuter rail will be necessary on those tracks, it is a freight line and would be more efficient as a commuter rail regardless of arguments over the exact number of miles. Instead of debating the miles let's lobby CSX to be more reasonable in their negotiations with the city so we can get this thing done. Midtown, Shelby farms and Cordova would be better in the long run.

[bluff2085]

What is all this latitude, calculus, 25 mile stuff? The plain truth is Light rail is going to happen first Airport to Downtown and then beyond. Second if the city continues to negotiate with CSX(and they will) some form of commuter rail will be necessary on those tracks, it is a freight line and would be more efficient as a commuter rail regardless of arguments over the exact number of miles. Instead of debating the miles let's lobby CSX to be more reasonable in their negotiations with the city so we can get this thing done. Midtown, Shelby farms and Cordova would be better in the long run.

CSX line would be a nice commuter route but I wouldn't consider it an alternative to the Norfolk Southern line, which is much more valuable in terms of Memphis' future LRT plans.

[northernbizzkit1]

What is all this latitude, calculus, 25 mile stuff? The plain truth is Light rail is going to happen first Airport to Downtown and then beyond. Second if the city continues to negotiate with CSX(and they will) some form of commuter rail will be necessary on those tracks, it is a freight line and would be more efficient as a commuter rail regardless of arguments over the exact number of miles. Instead of debating the miles let's lobby CSX to be more reasonable in their negotiations with the city so we can get this thing done. Midtown, Shelby farms and Cordova would be better in the long run.

Haha...I agree...if development keeps going on in Fayette County and Desoto/Tunica, it may come to fruition that Memphis will need both commuter rail and light rail. Boston has that, and I could see it work for Memphis. It'd be nice to have light rail go as far as Southaven with commuter rail lines going from downtown to places such as Tunica, West Memphis, Somerville, and possibly Oxford.

[Bears]

What is all this latitude, calculus, 25 mile stuff? The plain truth is Light rail is going to happen first Airport to Downtown and then beyond. Second if the city continues to negotiate with CSX(and they will) some form of commuter rail will be necessary on those tracks, it is a freight line and would be more efficient as a commuter rail regardless of arguments over the exact number of miles. Instead of debating the miles let's lobby CSX to be more reasonable in their negotiations with the city so we can get this thing done. Midtown, Shelby farms and Cordova would be better in the long run.

Can't a light rail use railroad tracks? I thought Amtrak and the trolley line shared a ROW some of the time. The "donated" CSX line ends near the Main Library but they could probably share a ROW on game days with whoever owns the line by the Libertybowl since its a pretty small distance. I would rather see it as a light rail so in the future, the line can continue onto Union, turn north on Copper then west onto Madison to connect to the Medical Center.

[monsoon]

Can't a light rail use railroad tracks? I thought Amtrak and the trolley line shared a ROW some of the time. The "donated" CSX line ends near the Main Library but they could probably share a ROW on game days with whoever owns the line by the Libertybowl since its a pretty small distance. I would rather see it as a light rail so in the future, the line can continue onto Union, turn north on Copper then west onto Madison to connect to the Medical Center.

No. The FTA will not allow LRT vehicles, like the one that visited Mempis shown above, to share tracks with freight lines. Only a commuter rail train can do that, and only after the track has been upgraded to make is safe for passengers.

LRT requires it's own set of tracks and for it to be effective as a development generator, really needs to be in its own ROW.